RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Usain Bolt cruised through the first round of the men’s 100 metres as he starts his quest to win another Olympic Games treble at Rio 2016 on Saturday.

Bolt, who won sprint trebles at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, cruised through his section in Saturday’s morning session on day 2 of track and field action, with a time of 10.07 seconds (-0.4).

The six-time Olympic champion seems to have fully recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him to pull out of the Jamaica Trials last month and applied for a medical pass.

Bolt’s winning time was the fourth fastest overall.

Qualifying the fastest in the men’s 100m, was American Justin Gatlin, who posted a time of 10.01seconds to win his heat.

Also booking a place into Sunday’s semi-final round is Jamaican national champion and double London Olympic silver medallist Yohan Blake, who ran 10.11 secs for first place in heat 6.

Ben Youssef Meite of Ivory Coast shifted through the fifth heat and clocked 10.03 secs to finish ahead of USA’s World Indoor champion and Beijing 2015 world bronze medallist, Trayvon Bromell, who ran 10.13 for second in that heat.

Canada’s Andre De Grasse, who shared the bronze medal with Bromell at the world championships last summer, looked very impressive when winning his heat in 10.04.

Other notable qualifiers for the semi-final were Nickel Ashmeade (10.13) of Jamaica, Jimmy Vicaut (10.19) of France, Chijindu Ujah (10.13) of Great Britain, Kim Collins (10.18) of Saint Kitts & Nevis and former Jamaican sprinter Andrew Fisher (10.12) who now represents Bahrain.

Also going off on the second day of track and field competition was the women’s 400m, where all the medal contenders safely advanced to the semi-final round.

World champion Allyson Felix of USA ran 51.24 to cruise home in first place in her heat, while world silver medallist Shaunae Miller from the Bahamas took her heat with a time of 51.16.

American Phyllis Francis recorded the fastest time of the heats on Saturday, after she won her section in 50.58.

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Gary Smith is one of the leading writers for World-Track.org. He has over 10 years of running experience, as well as eight-years of coaching while covering several events, from the international to college level. Smith, who has covered events for publications such as Caribbean Net News, Cayman Net News, AFP and Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), is also a frequent contributor of SportingAlert.com and TrackAlerts.com.